Three cheetahs paced along a perimeter fence, repeatedly glancing at the zebras on the other side.

The Bull family, from Leominster, had joined relatives from Lowell on a day trip to Providence. Together they walked through the zoo on a gray, but dry, and seasonably moderate day.

"I was looking for something for the kids for vacation," said Nicholas Bull. "I heard about the free admission and that you could do a donation. We brought jackets and food."

Through the end of the year, the zoo is not charging admission, an incentive that attracted nearly 3,000 people on Monday.

Visitors are encouraged to bring clothing and food to donate to needy Rhode Islanders. Containers at the entrance to the zoo overflowed Monday.

"This is something brand new," said Diane Nahabedian, director of marketing and communications. "The community has been very good to Roger Williams Park Zoo. We decided, as a gift, to give back to the community."

"It pulls in people who may not have been to the zoo to see," she added, and gives the zoo a chance to say, "We have lot going on. Come back another time."

Talks and demonstrations are being held almost daily through the end of the year.

"If you want to just a spend a day or an hour, come on out of the house," Nahabedian said. "This is something that gets everybody outside."

The zoo is typically busiest in warmer months, when the weather is nice and kids are on recess. But many animals can still be seen in their outdoor exhibits even as winter settles in.

"There are a lot of animals that are active in the winter," Nahabedian said.

The red pandas are typically energetic, she said. Meanwhile, a pair of river otters repeatedly plunged into their pool, dove underwater on the other side of a window and then climbed back out onto their shoreline habitat.

Some animals could be found indoors where it's warmer. Inside one pavilion, visitors gathered in the morning to watch the elephants getting bathed and scrubbed. Several giraffes munched on hay suspended in the air in a container.

"Look at the elephants! They're walking," little Rommel Ozuna, of Providence, said as the animals were leaving the building. "Are they bigger than the giraffes?"

The question forced his grandfather, Stan Obenhaus, to think quick on his feet.

"We come here often during the year," Obenhaus said. "It's one of our favorite things to do, just the two of us."

At a window to observe harbor seals under water, Amanda Spector and her daughter Avery watched as one of the marine mammals headed toward them. In a flash, the seal, swimming upside down, glided by the window.

"Where'd he go?" Avery asked.

"It's a perfect day to get out of the house one last time time," before the worst of the winter weather arrives, said Spector, of Easton, Massachusetts. As for the free admission, she said, "Why not?"

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